Philosophy of Language

In the first decades of the twentieth century, philosophy took a linguistic turn marked by a focus on conceptual and linguistic analysis and, in Russell's words, a "revolt against Idealism". The result was the rise of analytic philosophy in England, in the Austrian tradition of Brentano and his students and in the Uppsala School in Sweden. This book explores the origins of the analytic tradition in Frege and Meinong and in arguments in Bradley's Idealism. In examining views of Russell, Moore and Wittgenstein, of major philosophers, such as Carnap, Davidson, Dummett, Kripke, Quine, Sellars, Tarski, the book argues for a variant of philosophical realism to resolve problems posed by truth, meaning, reference and predication. It also argues against the patterns of classical idealism, pragmatism and conventionalism that have reemerged in various guises - "semantic ascent," "deflation" and "anti-realism" to dominate the present phase of the linguistic turn. This book will appeal to students taking courses in philosophy of language, contemporary philosophy, linguistics and cognitive science.
 
In the first decades of the twentieth century, philosophy took a linguistic turn marked by a focus on conceptual and linguistic analysis and, in Russell's words, a "revolt against Idealism". The result was the rise of analytic philosophy in England, in the Austrian tradition of Brentano and his students and in the Uppsala School in Sweden. This book explores the origins of the analytic tradition in Frege and Meinong and in arguments in Bradley's Idealism. In examining views of Russell, Moore and Wittgenstein, of major philosophers, such as Carnap, Davidson, Dummett, Kripke, Quine, Sellars, Tarski, the book argues for a variant of philosophical realism to resolve problems posed by truth, meaning, reference and predication. It also argues against the patterns of classical idealism, pragmatism and conventionalism that have reemerged in various guises - "semantic ascent," "deflation" and "anti-realism" to dominate the present phase of the linguistic turn. This book will appeal to students taking courses in philosophy of language, contemporary philosophy, linguistics and cognitive science.